Back in the fall of 1968, a neatly handwritten letter was dispatched from Calcutta (it wouldn’t become Kolkata for another 33 years) to the Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Germany. The late Shumon Sircar wrote that he had acquired a particular Mercedes-Benz motorcar whose electric starter motor had been removed by the previous owner. He graciously requested help from the company in sourcing the missing kit and with any information it might have about this particular car.
A month later, a typed letter arrived at the family's house on Short Street. It revealed that the car was a 1930 10/50HP Type Stuttgart 260, which had been imported to Calcutta in April 1931. While the company couldn’t help source a starter, it did mention an Argentinian gentleman from Buenos Aires who also owned a Stuttgart Special. Mercedes-Benz knew of no other, at the time, hinting that the Stuttgart Special on Calcutta’s Short Street might be just one of two examples to have survived into the 1960s.
“My grandfather was an avid car enthusiast who used to visit Mullick Bazar (Kolkata’s renowned used automobile and spares market cum informal scrapyard) every Friday. There he would scout for antiques, and occasionally he would buy a car that would have been sent for scrapping but had caught his eye,” says Sircar, known to friends as Sparky. “On one such Friday in 1964, he spotted this car and managed to acquire it for the princely sum of Rs. 1,400. It has been with us ever since.”
Indrojit, who has a tidy collection of historic vehicles and is keenly interested in motorsport, attributes his passion for automobiles to his grandfather. The hereditary love story hasn’t skipped generations with petrol being stamped into the Sircar DNA. His father, late Rahul Sircar, was also a collector and a renowned restorer with a flourishing workshop in Kolkata. A business that Sparky took over, following his father’s passing in 2021, and continues successfully after shifting base to Delhi NCR.
Over the course of time, a starter was duly sourced, and the car became a regular at historic vehicle events, first with Shumon Sircar himself at the wheel and later his son Rahul. It remained a constant feature at events in Kolkata right up till the late 1990s. “She needed new tyres and those tyres weren’t available then in India. As a matter of fact, they’re still not available,” recalled Sircar.
“Without proper tyres, the car could no longer be driven, and locating and sourcing them in the pre-Internet days was extremely difficult. Then there were the prohibitive import costs,” he said. As a result, the familiar shape of the Type 260 Stuttgart Special’s open-top Phaeton body vanished from the scene, tucked safely away in the family workshop.
It wasn’t until 2010 that a family friend and fellow historic vehicle enthusiast and owner, Himanshu Ajmera, helped source a set of tyres. By then, the car needed a complete overhaul. Thankfully, Rahul Sircar’s expertise in restoration and his ownership of the workshop meant that getting the family Merc back in action would not be impossible. “In 2021, our friends and founders of the Classic Drivers Club (a Kolkata-based historic vehicles enthusiast trust), Prithvi Nath Tagore, Souvik Ghose Chowdhury, and Rupak Ghosh persuaded dad to get the car to participate in an event which was being organised by the Automobile Association of Eastern India (AAEI),” he says. It was the last time his dad, Rahul would drive it to any event. The car was then taken to Delhi, where Indrojit redid bits of the restoration, and since then, the Sircar’s very special 1930 Mercedes-Benz Type 260 Stuttgart Special has been back on the road, picking up trophies at multiple events across the country.
“Produced in limited numbers, one of the most distinctive features of the Stuttgart Special is the twin floorboard mounted spares on either side of the car. Most featured the steering wheel on the left in classic European style. What’s special about our car is that this is one of the rare right-hand drive versions of the car,” explains Sircar.
While the car was meticulously repaired and restored after its hiatus by the father, late Rahul Sircar, it is now lovingly maintained by his son, Indrojit, at his workshop in Delhi NCR.
Should you wish to see this beautiful convertible with its wire-spoke wheels, beige seats, and elegant pre-war styling, all you need to do is visit the next vintage and classic car event in Delhi NCR.
